Special Tribunal for Lebanon registrar Hermen von Hebel told the Lebanese officials that the funding of the tribunal isn’t limited to the current cabinet but goes back to the unpaid funds of the previous government and is worth $32 million, An Nahar newspaper reported on Wednesday.

A ministerial source told the daily that the cabinet will fund the STL probing the assassination of ex-Premier Rafik Hariri during the given timeframe.

Prime Minister Najib Miqati’s recent statements that Lebanon will continue on funding the Special Tribunal for Lebanon will likely cause a governmental crisis given that Free Patriotic Movement ministers believe that such a decision cannot be taken by the premier, but by the ministers themselves, the majority of which oppose the tribunal, reported the pan-Arab daily Al-Hayat on Sunday.

Ministerial sources told the daily that Lebanon is obligated to fund 49 percent of the tribunal’s funds according to United Nations Security Council 1757.

A spokesman of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon probing the assassination of ex-Prime Minister Rafik Hariri told An Nahar newspaper on Friday that the opening of the trials is a decision taken by the trial chamber only.

The spokesman said that the trial date depends on a number of factors, including the time needed by the defense office to examine the evidence presented by Prosecutor Daniel Bellemare.

Saad Hariri’s al-Mustaqbal movement is admonishing Grand Mufti Sheikh Mohammed Rashid Qabbani for meeting with a delegation from Hizbullah and the Syrian ambassador on the day the international tribunal issued the indictment in ex-Premier Rafik Hariri’s assassination case, a source said.

The Mustaqbal source told al-Liwaa daily on Friday that the movement’s lawmakers decided to boycott prayers led by Qabbani at al-Amin mosque on the occasion of Eid al-Fitr “to admonish the Mufti for some of his stances.”

Special Tribunal for Lebanon spokesman Marten Youssef stressed on Thursday that the indictment has a supplement that wasn’t released to keep the identity of witnesses and the investigation confidential.

“There is a part of the indictment that the pre-trial judge (Daniel Fransen) decided to keep confidential, especially in the matters that would affect the witnesses, investigations and the victims,” Youssef told al-Okaz Saudi newspaper.

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea stressed that the Lebanese government is dominated by Hizbullah and the Syrian regime that were behind the toppling of the cabinet led by former PM Saad Hariri.

“The President (Michel Suleiman) and the Premier (Najib Miqati) are the ones who supervise the formation of the government… they had a strong tendency to form a technocrat cabinet… However, the result was the opposite,” Geagea told al-Ekhbariya Saudi channel.

Premier Najib Miqati rejected threats made by Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun to withdraw his ministers from the cabinet if it didn’t approve the electricity plan, saying this could create a precedence that would turn the government useless.

In remarks to As Safir daily published Monday, Miqati said: “This equation is totally rejected. Accepting it would create a dangerous precedence on the level of institutional work.”

Former Premier Fouad Saniora has reiterated that Nasrallah had links to the four suspects indicted by the Special Tribunal for Lebanon and was contributing to their protection.

During a press conference he held in the southern city of Sidon on Saturday, the Mustaqbal parliamentary bloc leader said Hizbullah’s rejection to cooperate with the STL, which is probing ex-Premier Rafik Hariri’s Feb. 2005 assassination, is “strange” and “illegal.”

Special Tribunal for Lebanon Registrar Herman von Hebel stressed on Friday that the trials in the case of the assassination of ex-Premier Rafik Hariri will begin in mid-2012 whether they were in the presence of the suspects or in absentia, As Safir newspaper reported.

“The final decision in setting the timing goes back to the judges,” Von Hebel said.

The Lebanese judiciary will summon reporters working for TIME magazine after its correspondent Nicholas Blanford provided General Prosecutor Saeed Mirza with their names, informed sources said.

The sources told pan-Arab daily al-Hayat published Friday that during his meeting with Mirza on Tuesday, Blanford told the general prosecutor about the names of all reporters working for the magazine after claiming that he did not know who carried out an interview with one of the four suspects indicted in ex-Premier Rafik Hariri’s assassination case.